What a crazy picture, right? Have I lost my mind? Have I misread my calendar? Could it be Thanksgiving Day already? What happened to our summer vacation? What happened to Easter, Mother’s Day, Father’s Day, July 4th, and Labor day? I must be really confused.
Well, not exactly. I’m just trying to get your attention! Do I have it yet? For the next few minutes please give me your undivided attention.
We have so relegated giving thanks to a day on the calendar that sometimes we have forgotten that we are to be thankful all the time. Every day of our life should be a day of thankfulness. Regularly and continually we should be offering our praise to God, our Heavenly Father. Thanking Him should be more than a yearly exercise.
And, even more forgotten is that giving thanks isn’t designed just for the good things in life. Of, believe me, we are to give God thanks for all those “good and perfect” which come down from Him. But, thankfulness should emanate from our hearts even when things are not as we expected. Difficulties as well as blessing are to be received with a heart of thankfulness.
Maybe the most familiar account in the Word of God concerning thankfulness or the lack thereof, is the account of the ten lepers. Luke 17:11-19 records this event. Jesus gave healing to ten desperately needy lepers. Yet, when the healing was received only one returned to give Him thanks. Is 10% really the right percentage of thankful people? Shouldn’t it be 100%?
What about us, do we give God thanks everyday for every thing? Sunday morning we will look at this important subject as we continue to proceed through the Book of Ephesians. Come to worship with us.
Oh, boy, mom won’t be happy about this mess! Looks like someone hasn’t been very careful in putting things away.
Have you heard about hoarders? They have become popular enough for a television show. Hoarders are people that have no self-control when it come to getting things. Some order unnecessary things and never open them. Others just won’t throw away an old magazine or newspapers. Things simply pile up higher and higher until the person can barely get around in their own home. Simply put, it is chaos!
Yet, each one of us has that same choice every day. We might not stress over throwing away an old newspaper. And, maybe our offices don’t look like this. But, our lives are made up of one out of control decision after another.
The Apostle Paul says, “Stop being dunk with wine which leads to dissipation.” (Eph. 5:18) Now, I don’t know about you, but I don’t use the word “dissipation” much! Other translations use the English word “debauchery.” The Greek word Paul uses points out a wasteful life style. It has the idea of scattering things randomly. Much like a tornado, a life out of control simply turns life into chaos.
What about us? Are we living orderly or chaotically? Sunday we will look into steps that lead to orderly lives.
Well, 2014 has barely begun, but I wonder how many dumb decisions you have already made? Some of you might have started 2014 with bad decisions on NYE! As the new year dawned you were doing things that you regretted on January 1st. As you reflected on those decisions maybe you concluded nothing will ever change.
Let me encourage you a bit with this thought, you and I can change if we learn to apply biblical wisdom in our decision process. When I saw the picture above I asked myself, “If I was hit in the head with this rock, would it get my attention?” My answer was, “YES!” That big rock hitting my head would get me to consider what I was doing. Wisdom, likewise, is like that. God’s wisdom will hit us in the head each time we walk in our own ways. But, unlike a real rock hitting our real head, God’s wisdom often doesn’t get our attention.
Sunday we continue our thoughts on wisdom from Ephesians 5:14-17. We will come back to our study in the Epistle of Ephesians and pick up where we left off before Christmas. We will again remind ourselves of what biblical and godly wisdom is. Today, January 2, make the decision to choose wisely in 2014. Make it your daily choice to put God’s Word into practice. When you fail, seek forgiveness and then start again.
Decisions can seem like they bind us forever. But, it’s what we do with the consequences of bad decisions that counts more. Like a great sage once said, “Ever notice the number of people watching is proportional to the stupidity of your actions?” (Charlie Brown) Don’t be stymied by what others say. Look to your Heavenly Father Who will walk each step with you.
Ok, how many of you know what this picture is? Go ahead, raise your hands. Wow, I can see that many of you are old like me!!! For you younger people, it is a picture of a punch card which was the way we “communicated” with a computer before the days of our keyboard! It was labor intensive and not particularly reliable. One wrong punch and your whole job was simply “punched out.” But, done properly the data inserted would result in some kind of information in the end.
Today, although we don’t deal in pouch cards any longer, we are dealing with data all the time. In fact, some have said we live in the era of knowledge overload. But, as a dear friend once said to me (Ok, Ken Renfro, you’re in my blog! :-)) we are NOT in the knowledge overload era, but rather the data overload era. He caused me to think of the difference between mere data and useable knowledge. If you don’t believe me, the next time you google something, look at how many “hits” it gets. Will you ever get to number 1,325,432? NOOOOOO! So, you have been overloaded with data.
Today, spiritually speaking, we are in the data overload era. Today we are hearing voices from many sides. King Solomon said this over 2800 year ago, “Of making many books there is no end, and much study is wearisome to the flesh.” Can I get an amen from all students? Publishers are publishing more and more books that can be described by King Solomon’s favorite word; vanity.
Paul admonishes us to walk in wisdom. Wisdom is knowledge properly applied to life. Knowledge is making sense of data. God isn’t interested in how much data we have stored in our brain. He is interested in how much knowledge we have that can be translated into wisdom. Certainly we need data so we can form knowledge. But, just having facts at our fingertips isn’t enough. It’s like the child in AWANA who memorizes words to pass a section and get “shares” so they can “buy” stuff in the AWANA store, and the person who memorizes a verse and uses it in a real life situation.
Sunday we will seek to finish the section Paul began by saying, “…walk…” He has instructed us to walk in love, walk in light and finally walk in wisdom. Read through Ephesians 5:1-17 before coming to church on Sunday to prepare your heart for our study.
I’ll be prepared to preach the passage, will you be prepared to hear?
Don’t you just love the commercials that ask, “Got milk?” They show a person eating a delicious looking cookie and then looking for a cold glass of milk. Not finding one the person almost chokes on the delicious cookie. The message? Milk is the most import part of eating a cookie!
So it is with life. In our world, a premium has been placed on the acquisition of knowledge. Over the past 100 years or so we have been told that the more education you receive, the smarter you will be. More and more emphasis has been placed upon getting a degree. At one time an 8th grade education was thought sufficient, and a high school diploma was better. Then, it was the high school diploma that was sufficient, but a college degree was better. Now we have come to a place where even a Ph.D degree doesn’t seem to be enough.
Yet, with all the education being “eaten” in our culture, it seems we have less and less of what is really important; wisdom. After spending multiple years to acquire knowledge, we will be very disappointed when we come to realize education isn’t enough. Knowing how or what just isn’t as important as knowing when. Applying our knowledge at the right time is more important than randomly applying our knowledge. Wisdom teaches us that principle.
Yet, even more important than wisdom alone is Godly wisdom. We’ll call that “Wisdom 2.0″ Wisdom 1.0 is the wisdom man dispenses. Yet, it needs updating and replacing. On Sunday we will see in Ephesians 5:15-17 that aspect of walking in our everyday lives that requires God’s wisdom. Read Ephesians 5:1-17 in preparation for our study.
How many of you have ever tried to fool a person on their birthday with “never blow out” candles? You know the kind, the ones that can be blown out, but, soon reignite! No matter how many times they blow them out, the candle comes right back on. It is a fun trick to play on the unsuspecting.
Sunday we will look at the fact that we are light. The text says we not only walk in light, but that we ARE light. Now, we are not light in ourselves. We are simply a reflector of light. But, we are light and no longer darkness.
Remember the children’s song maybe you sang or taught to your children, “This little light of mine”? One verse says, “Don’t let Satan blow it out..” We are built like the “never blow out candle” in that Satan can look like he blew out our light. But, soon, it will reignite. As we stay close to the real Light our light can never permanently go out.
Sunday come to study with us the concept of us as light-bearers.
Today begins a new adventure for me. I will be writing some short thoughts about the messages coming on Sundays and to get you and I to think about how to live out our Christian lives.
We are talking about “walking” from Ephesians 5:1-17. Sunday we will be looking at “walking in the light.” The first question you must ask yourself is, “Am I in the light?” Then, you must ask, “Am I still in the light?”
Be reading Ephesians 5:1-17 to become familiar with what happens when we walk in the light.
Fell free to ask questions or make comments. Let’s make this as interactive as possible.
Other translations use the English word “debauchery.” The Greek word Paul uses points out a wasteful life style. It has the idea of scattering things randomly. Much like a tornado, a life out of control simply turns life into chaos.
